E-mail a friendJane Seymour
airdate August 16, 2007
Award-winning actress Jane Seymour is perhaps best known as the star of TV's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman—which she exec-produced. She also has more than 50 films to her credit and has proven her talent on the Broadway stage. In addition, Seymour is a successful artist in watercolor and oil, has her own clothing line and signature home collection product line and is the author of seven books. She supports a variety of charitable causes, including the Association of Women's Heart Programs.
Jane Seymour
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Jane Seymour back to this program. The Emmy-winning actress is bringing her acting talent to PBS this Sunday night in the latest installment of "Mystery." This week's episode is called "Ordeal by Innocence," check your local listings for the time on your PBS station. But here now, a scene from "Mystery: Ordeal by Innocence."
[Clip]
Tavis: So we learn two things from that clip - one, Jane Seymour got a haircut. (Laughter)
Jane Seymour: Thank God for those wigs. Lovely dark wig.
Tavis: And number two, I didn't know you could say you B on PBS.
Seymour: Well, there you go. (Laughter)
Tavis: If I had known that - (laughs).
Seymour: Well, I think that's probably why I end up getting killed.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughter) This is not your first time doing something for PBS.
Seymour: No, when I first came to America I think I did the Dickens on "Mutual Friend," and I did a documentary series called "Japan." But I haven't been on PBS for far too long, so I'm glad to be back.
Tavis: We're glad to have you this Sunday. Tell me about the project.
Seymour: Well, it's part of the Miss Marple series, and although this actually wasn't a Marple story, it's been adapted to become a Marple story. But it is an Agatha Christie original called "Ordeal by Innocence," and I play this woman, Rachel Argyle, who has adopted I don't know how many children - like, eight children or something - and is obviously unhappily married and ends up murdered quite soon.
I am seen in flashbacks, so don't worry, I come back. But the real question, of course, is who killed her and why, and we realize that she was a complicated woman and not much liked by many people and in my opinion, highly misunderstood.
Tavis: In your opinion, yeah. Might it have been one of the kids?
Seymour: I am not telling. That's the great thing about Agatha Christie, is you really don't know. And my husband's a - James Keach - he's a director and producer, and he's watching it. So he said, "I know who it is - it's so and so." I go. I know, it's so and so, it's so and so - all the way through the thing. He never, ever could decide (unintelligible).
Tavis: He couldn't figure it out.
Seymour: He couldn't figure it out. Nobody has.
Tavis: That's worth watching, then.
Seymour: So you do have to watch it, yes.
Tavis: That's worth watching, if you can't figure it out. Sometimes you figure these things out 10 minutes into it.
Seymour: I couldn't figure it out, either (laughs).
Tavis: How many kids do you have?
Seymour: I have six.
Tavis: So you're not concerned that any of the six will do this to you, though.
Seymour: I'm hoping not, no. (Laughter) No, I treat them really well, I treat them really well, and I didn't adopt them, either.
Tavis: Yeah. I guess after reading a script like this you ought to be nicer to your kids.
Seymour: I think so.
Tavis: How do you go about choosing your projects these days? When I look at you I think of the variety of stuff that you've done over the years, and we were talking earlier about the fact that you're now back, at least for this particular piece, on PBS this Sunday. How do you go, at this point in your career, about picking your projects?
Seymour: Well, this one they've asked me - every time they did a Marple they offered me whatever I wanted to play. And so they were wonderful and incredibly generous, and I kept saying, “I can't come to England; I don't have time to come and do it.” And eventually, they found this one with a smaller role that could be condensed into five days of working.
So I said, "I can do this one." But the reason I really did this was because I just love doing British television, or PBS-type television; it's really classic, it's really beautiful. But at this point in my career, I'm really enjoying diversifying and kind of playing different characters. And as you can see, with this darker wig and the whole thing it's quite different from the Jane Seymour that most people think of, and I'm trying to pick things that I think are character parts. I've done a lot of comedy recently, of course, since I last met you.
Tavis: Is there stuff yet that you have not done, in terms of the kind of -
Seymour: Oh, yes. I'm at that kind of funny stage right now, because the roles I want to play, people keep saying - although I am old enough - they say I don't look that age. So I've got to kind of start wearing some graying wigs and things and just saying to people, “Yes, I am that age, I can look that age, I can play that age - I can be a grandmother, okay?” But they are - I'm sort of in that transition thing between playing the leads and the characters.
Tavis: I guess it's funny for me to hear a woman who is wanting to play older parts because she doesn't look that age as yet. Most women, I would assume, would want to continue to look the way you've looked for quite some time and not be begging for parts where they get a chance to play somebody older.
Seymour: Well, I want to do quality things, and I just think that women in the fifties - they've had a lot of life span, they've got plenty to play, there's some really good material. But they don't make very many great movies or very many roles for women in my age group, and there's no point in me trying to play 40. I can, but there are a million 40-year-olds out there and they're going to pick them before they pick me.
So I'm just kind of being picky. I've got a lot of things I'm doing in my life apart from acting, as well, and when I act I want to act in something with a great cast - as, of course, the Marple was. The best actors in England are all in this, all playing small parts. And I want people to know that I'm not afraid to play a character or play a smaller role in something that's really good. Like I did in "Wedding Crashers." That was a small role in a great movie.
Tavis: A silly question. Every time I see you I see this long mane. Are you ever going to cut this, or are you going to die with your hair like this?
Seymour: It is cut, there are -
Tavis: It is a little shorter than normal.
Seymour: There are people (unintelligible) who are just saying, “What happened to the other 12 inches?” No, it used to be a longer. I'm really lazy, that's the problem. (Laughter) I really am, and I've got these six kids, and -
Tavis: But lazy is usually associated with, like, short hair. You have to do nothing to it.
Seymour: No, no, you have to do things to short hair. Long hair you just -
Tavis: Get up and go.
Seymour: You tie it up and you clean it and you wash and wear - it's easy.
Tavis: You mentioned earlier that you're busy doing a lot of stuff outside of the acting stuff that keeps you busy. Stuff like?
Seymour: Well, I wrote a book that just came out called "Making Yourself at Home," a whole style book encouraging people to discover what their style is when they do their home décor. I have a huge business - JaneSeymourHome.com, and I'm in The Great Indoors and various places. I design home furnishing and lamps, and -
Tavis: Where did that come from? It's a skill, obviously, but how'd you develop that?
Seymour: Well, I did that for years. I did it when I was acting. I always used to design and do homes, as well. And then I painted - I've been painting for the last 16 years. And so we take my paintings directly and turn them into decorative accessories like cushions or the handbag that your makeup artist saw today. And I've just always been creative, I've always done that.
Since I was about 15 years old, I think I had my first company designing and making clothes and things like that. So it's a part of me that maybe some people don't know about, but I have to get up in the morning and create. And if I'm not acting, I'm either writing or I'm helping my husband with producing or I'm painting and creating home accessories.
Tavis: What kind of - I'm trying to find the right word.
Seymour: Here's one of my paintings right there.
Tavis: You painted this for?
Seymour: I painted that - I did a documentary called "Running Dry," which I hope one day will end up on PBS - all about the world's water crisis, and Jim Thebaut directed it. And when we went to Congress to show it at Congress and really get these issues dealt with, that was the painting that I did for the congressmen.
So that's now being used as an image, and it's actually a little girl from Bangalore who was fetching water for her family, and that little dripping tap, and that sort of tells the story.
Tavis: To that issue, what do most Americans not know about the water crisis that we ought to know?
Seymour: Well first of all, it's right here in America. In the southwest it's pretty dire. Globally, it's a huge issue. In terms of pollution in India and China - we hear about it, but until you actually see it and you see the footage that we have in our documentary, it's pretty unbelievable. And I think it's the reason that there will be global wars. A lot of the wars that are being fought right now are not being fought over oil; they're being fought over water. Because we can live without oil - we cannot live without fresh drinking water.
Tavis: That's a good point. Let me go back to all the stuff that you're working on. I wonder - I think freedom is the right word - what kind of freedom does it give you to have reached a point in your career where there are other things that they can do, and not just do other things that you're doing successfully, so that if you're not finding the right part on any given day or week or month, it's not like your life stops, it's not like your creativity stops. There must be a sense of freedom that comes along with that.
Seymour: Well, I think that it's also important to be happy in life, and I realize -
Tavis: Nice quality, yeah.
Seymour: Yeah, I just need to be creative, and I can't sit around waiting for the telephone to ring for someone to say, "Would you like to be creative today? We'd like you to come and play this role." I'm being offered tons of stuff, but I'm not necessarily being offered the kind of material that I really want to do. So I'm being picky about that; I can afford to.
I saved some money, which is okay, and meanwhile, I've just got these paintings I want to do, I've just got such a full life in terms of being creative, in terms of - I do about 12 one-woman shows a year all over the country, I do a lot of public speaking, which I love. That's a great way to really talk about things and issues that matter, and really kind of meet the public that have been watching my shows for so many years.
Tavis: Is your public speaking around a particular set of things?
Seymour: Well, yes, I wrote a book called "Remarkable Changes" which is about how you turn life's challenges into opportunities. So I do a lot of speaking for people about when they're dealing with loss, whether it's loss of a friend or their own health or their money or their marriage or their job or whatever it is. How do you process it?
How do you move on? How do you not go down that deep, dark tunnel of depression? How do you kind of pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and move forward and press on? And I think a lot of people get stuck. Christopher Reeve was a very close friend of mine, and he used to say, "Jane, I just don't understand it."
He said, "Here I am, completely paralyzed and I need two people to administer to me 24-seven just to make sure I'm alive, and there's all those people out there who are not physically paralyzed but they're mentally paralyzed." And he said, "It just saddens me that people don't realize that they put themselves into this dark hole."
Tavis: Finally, given your own life, is this about where you thought you'd be at this age?
Seymour: I am the most blessed human being on the planet. First of all, I never thought -
Tavis: I'll fight you on that, but go ahead.
Seymour: I am. I never thought I was ever going to have any kids; I have six. They're all great. They're fantastic kids, every one of them. I'm really proud of them. I have a great marriage, I have a wonderful family, I think I've had a great career, but I absolutely know that the best is yet to come. My acting chops are so ripe and ready, and it's not about looking beautiful or sexy or anything. I can play anything now, and I'm really excited about that. And to have this whole career as a painter, as an artist, and as a designer is just an added blessing.
Tavis: Jane Seymour, check her out this Sunday or check your local listings for this wonderful piece on PBS. You're always welcome back here, good to see you.
Seymour: Thank you.
Tavis: That's our show for tonight.
Back to August 16, 2007